OverweightWhale:Wow I love how you can banned just for hurting someone's feelings now a days. I miss the old days of Counter Strike, Quake, Unreal etc where you could throw around racial slurs and insults for fun and the admins wouldn't give two shits.

I was in those good old days, and we were far better at policing ourselves then. My old Quake clan would toss your butt on the curb like it was garbage day if you threw out bigoted crap in-game. Any opposition we had that talked like that got it hard and without tenderness if they included that in their trash talk.

OverweightWhale:Wow I love how you can banned just for hurting someone's feelings now a days. I miss the old days of Counter Strike, Quake, Unreal etc where you could throw around racial slurs and insults for fun and the admins wouldn't give two shits.

I was in those good old days, and we were far better at policing ourselves then. My old Quake clan would toss your butt on the curb like it was garbage day if you threw out bigoted crap in-game. Any opposition we had that talked like that got it hard and without tenderness if they included that in their trash talk.

Well....thicker skin, of course, but pay attention; we said WE POLICED OURSELVES. That means we the players did not tolerate talk that would embaress your average Stormfront or Spearhead forum regular. I really do wish it hadn't come to admins cracking down on this, but to be honest, the community brought it on it'self by not doing a better job weeding out the shitbirds from day 1. Admin actions and banhammering is a band aid only, the community will have to change and deliver the beatdowns on the bigots if this is to be fixed.

This is why I like PSN over Xbox live, the community there I find is much more mature "for the most part anyway" IMO I think Microsoft likes it when it gets to ban people, because they know most of those people who are willing to pay for Xbox live are also willing to go out and buy a new console if they get banned.

On PSN it's a different story, it's free so Sony doesn't have this elaborate robust complaint and evidence-based system. You don't like somebody you put them on your ignore list, problem solved you can't hear or talk to them. You get banned on PSN odds are you are you had it coming. Xbox live I hear tosses out suspensions and banns like they're going out of style, and since the consoles life is coming to an end soon it probably has a lot to do with increased bans, just a way of increasing more sales before the 720 hits the market.

antidark777:I just had a thought; all the mouthbreathers who recieve lifetime bans may wander onto PSN.

they always threaten to. whywasibanned is a great place to visit if you add a dotcom at the end. Come for the children arguing against their bans, stay for the wise-ass microsoft enforcement reps. OT seriously people. Read the original article. I mean actually read it. then check out the source. In the original escapist article, IT NEVER SAYS THERE WILL BE INCREASED ENFORCEMENT OF NOT BEING A DOUCHE RULES. What it does, is has some quotes by Wolfkill and her 343 fellow about how sexism is bad, then the author stated live permabans dickbags. This last part isn't in quotes, and there is nothing connecting it to Wolfkill. WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID as to have read this article and though there would be an increase in enforcement?

OverweightWhale:Wow I love how you can banned just for hurting someone's feelings now a days. I miss the old days of Counter Strike, Quake, Unreal etc where you could throw around racial slurs and insults for fun and the admins wouldn't give two shits.

I was in those good old days, and we were far better at policing ourselves then. My old Quake clan would toss your butt on the curb like it was garbage day if you threw out bigoted crap in-game. Any opposition we had that talked like that got it hard and without tenderness if they included that in their trash talk.

Doesn't need to be the good old days. My TF2/CS:S clan (I left a year ago) would perma ban on first offence with racism, sexism and general twattery. For regular swearing you'd get a warning. If you kept at it you'd be kick, to show we were serious. If you logged back on and kept at it you got a perma ban.

No appeals would work. The only reversing of bans I saw was a few guys who had been banned by accident and that one time a core mod accidentally banned every 50000 people who had ever played on the servers.

Frankly I applaud those policies as it made for a much better environment in which to play. Our community donated to keep the servers running, the clan leader footed what was left on the bill and set the rules so it was a nice place to play. And judging from the amount of regular but non-clan players we saw many others enjoyed it as well.

After I left (I burned out on TF2) I played CSS on other server but always found myself disgusted with the way people acted. I really missed my clan at that point.

Isn't a "one strike and you're out" thing a bit harsh? Not condoning bigotry by any stretch, but losers in the heat of battle can and likely will say anything at random. Without a chance to learn from their mistake behaviour won't be altered. They'll just grow more resentful and hateful.

Context is everything. People can be offended by anything and everything. You cant block everything because you would have 99% of the people banned. Calling people "gay" maybe bad but whatever. But actually insulting a person due to them being female, black or whatever is wrong. An doing it a few times, then ban them, not cos of one off comment said in anger. But if its continuous then yes ban them.

Gaming is a fun hobby, you shouldnt have to be personally abused and targeted by arsehole just because your female or black or whatever.

on a side note I always thought the whole story and the way the gaming journos spun it was a bit falacious. one look at kikis comments and while showing confidence in microsofts ability to handle things.( I for one am one of the few people who expect micro or sony to be some all overseeing demigod who punishes the instant an offense is givin.) did not even come close to implying some new stand against sexism inparticular.

What is this "gaming community" people speak of? To me, a community is a wholly integrated society, either working together for survival, or in the pursuit of universally-shared ideals, beliefs and goals. The second part would apply to gaming, and as far as I can see, at no time whatsoever, has gaming ever met this criteria.

What we have is a hodge-podge of people playing video games. That's it. Videogaming is a profound part of society, as it takes up a large chunk of our time, and we invest our personal energy into the hobby. I don't want to debase it's significance; but it's not appropriate to elevate it to a sacred status; what is sacred is an existential concern. Who would want to claim that playing videogames and watching TV speaks to their humanity? I do both, and drink liquor: do they relate at all to my search for a higher meaning?